1. To some degree, your hands will just have to toughen up. I usually advise newcomers to the bell, to follow their hands, allowing them to adapt. The more blue collar you were before KB practice, the less time it will take.
2. The best hand care I have found and use is pumice stone in a hot shower.... every. single. time. Polish them up good, palms, fingers, etc.
3. For during session preventive measure, the gymnastic wrap made from athletic tape works very well. But use this sparingly, as protecting your hands too often reduces their ability to toughen up.
4. See # 1. You will have to wait some time... years in many cases.
The skin on your hands, your grip strength, your tension development, your technical skill... it is all connected. You can't master one without the others. Don't feel that you have to train today, simply because it is scheduled, if your hands are saying "no", regardless of how recovered your body feels. If you tear your hands, you will lose far more training time than if you just rest another day when they feel, "hot".
You have a lifetime to practice...
I'm quoting Al's whole post again because there's a lot of wisdom there that only comes from experience and that a lot of readers might not understand without going through similar experience.
Some points that especially resonated with me:
Numbers 1/4: The long term nature of adaptation. Years is no joke. Patience.
"Follow your hands" is a great phrase. I haven't had a hand tear in literally years, and a big reason is that I have learned to follow my hands and listen to what they are telling me. If they are telling me to call it a day, or switch to a different drill, then I do. How did I learn this? By paying the price for not learning it for an embarrassingly long time.
The point that skin toughness, grip stength and skill/technique are all connected. Yes, your form/grip may look okay, but if you don't have the strength or get fatigued, you will start over squeezing and have a problem. There's a lot of subtle interaction between your contact with the KB and your overall form -- the ways force is transmitted and absorbed back and forth between you and the KB. A lot of this is not obvious from the outside, even to an expert eye, and must be tuned through trial and error.
A couple of things I personally differ on:
I've never gotten much out of pumice stones. When I want to bring down a callus, by far my favorite tool is the callus shaver that uses a razor blade, and I only occasionally have a need for it.
Personally, I have not found any type of hand protection to be tolerably satisfactory (and I've experimented with a lot), especially for anything other than swings. However, if I am hell bent on doing swings, even though my hands are telling me not to, I will use grips such as these Schiek dowel grips:
or the Versa Gripps Pro (works great, but very expensive for what it is):
Yes, these are a "cheat" since they reduce grip demand, but you won't drop the KB or tear the skin on your hands. Desperate situations call for desperate measures.
Finally, I avoid chalk if at all possible, even though I tend to sweat heavily. It just seems to make it so much easier for tears to develop, and with much less warning, and leaves my skin overly dry and prone to cracking. If sweat is factor, I towel off my hands and the bell frequently, use terry cloth wristbands, blast myself with a fan, and wipe off my hands and the bell handle with alcohol. Going without chalk often means I have to use a smaller bell than I could with chalk, but I consider that a net positive tradeoff.
